May 2015 report

 

During May the NCC team in close collaboration with the Municipality team continued the irrigation visits for the 2015 plantings at the islets Kalogeros and Dysvato. A new system of water tanks and irrigation pipes has been installed to facilitate the timely provision of water to the plantings. Fortunately most of the plantings have responded positively to the provision of water and they still survive despite the disappointing appearance during April.

Concerning the Yellow Legged Gull control operations and the post bait monitoring, a number of visits has been made to Kalogeros, Dysvato, Gavrionisia and Mandilou islets. More than 200 yellow legged gull eggs have been oiled to decrease the species breeding output in the project islets.

The NCC small inflatable boat has been heavily used together with the project boat in these operations.

An agreement has been made with the Cyclades Life project for our team to visit Gyaros and carry out seabird surveys day and night to assess the importance of the island for breeding seabirds and to facilitate collaboration among the two projects. The project boat will be used for the field work.

Pigeons have been introduced in the newly aquired pigeon tower and some more were added to the other two (to compensate for an observed population reduction).

The monitoring of the project target species continued by HOS researchers. The monitoring of the Audouin’s Gull colony on Mandilou revealed that the colony has split in two, and the majority of the breeding pairs have moved to another islet in the Evoikos Gulf. This strategy has been observed to be common for the species in the Aegean, and may come as a result of a bad breeding season in the previous year (as had been the case in 2014). Bonelli’s Eagle monitoring confirmed the presence and success of two pairs (on the north and south of the island), but efforts to find the third pair (including survey from sea to check coastal cliffs) proved fruitless.

Volunteers continue their visits to different areas of the island. A small excursion with the Field researcher could not finally be arranged due to difficulty to find convenient dates for the volunteers (beginning of high touristic period).

Patrolling and surveillance continued throughout the month, both in land and sea.

The album book has been produced and already receives good opinions.

The beginning of the tourist season brings more visitors to the Exhibition Center, and the need for extended opening hours is already obvious. As it has been discussed in tha past, an extra assistant will probably be needed for this purpose.

Last, but obviously not least, the first meeting of the SPA Management Committee took place on 28/05/2015 at the Municipality main building in Chora, Andros, with the participation of almost all of the appointed members and the presence of the Mayor and . After the necessary briefing about the project, its objectives and actions and the role of the Committee, a discussion took place on the environmental threats that the Andros SPA is facing. A memo has been asked from all participating authorities, containing their views about their own role in the Committee, to be discussed in the next meeting.